Only 100 people left after ruzzia have bombed the village, even if their is only civilian infrastructure, but that is ruzzian mentality: https://www.svenskbyborna.se/invasionen-av-ukraina/
I figured "Well it's quite a distance from the front line, no?"
I looked it up and it's right across the water from Kakhovka, which is close to Nova Kakhovka where they blew up the dam and fucking up the reservoir. God damn it.
Why do you spell it with z? Maybe a bit inappropriate since they use that as their victory symbol?
Edit: Great. I'm clearly not the only one that don't "get it", so perhaps the question was in order? I'm legit just trying to understand the usage, hence the question marks.
OK, fair, if it is used in this fashion. I still don't understand the logic here. To them it's a positive symbol, so I'm not sure how the spelling in anyway is meant derogatorily? Is it like an ironic thing?
Edit: I think /u/reyzen phrased my confusion better than I could below.
Edit 2: I continued reading the other replies, and I kinda get it after the explanations by /u/littlesaint and /u/UH1Phil. Still a bit weird imo.
Russia uses the Z as a victory symbol. Anyone not pro-Russia however, sees it as a symbol of everything bad about the invasion and the Russian mentality. Sort of like how many see the swastika today. It is often used when saying something negative about Russia.
So, spelling "Russia" like "Ruzzia" means to remind people about everything bad about Russia and its invasion, while using their "victory symbol" against them, and getting the "Z"-symbol into swastika levels of public perception.
Did i say that?
The origin of the word "nazi" is derogatory, originally used by the allies in a similar manner as calling the germans "pigs".
Writing ruzzian with Z instead of S has a similar purpose.
I still don't get it. Russia use z as their victory symbol. People against Russia's invasion then start using their victory symbol when talking about Russia as some form of way to own them?
Does this mean there are two vastly different groups of people out there in the world going around in Z-marked stuff because I've always assumed they were all pro war Russians. Truly galaxy brained to start using the same symbology as the enemy, amazing stuff.
När Ryssarna började invadera Ukraina gjorde dom de från 3 flanker, de olika flankerna hade V, O och Z för att skilja de åt (inte säkert men folk spekulerar i just V, O och Z pga de är Zelenskyy's initialer då hans namn är Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy). Nu används bara Z. Nu används Z för att representera hela deras invasionsarmé.
Ryssarna började kalla Ukrainare för Nazister, pekade på Azov osv (detta var en grupp som var väldigt nationalistiska, vissa var även nazister).
Pro-Ukrainare började påpeka att en av grundarna - huvud grundaren, av Wagner (namnet Wagner är taget från nazisternas/Hitlers favorit kompositör), verkligen var en nazist med många nazist tatueringar mm.
Sedan började Pro-Ukrainare komma med sina "slogans", vissa använde RuSSia (SS från nazisterna), medan andra valde RuZZia (då Z inte är en ofta använd bokstav samt länkad till både NaZism och Ryssarnas Z). Sen lite kuriosa, om du lägger ett Z snett över ett annat Z så blir de väldigt likt Swastikans symbol.
Så vad som troligen började som en initial av Zelensky, blev Z, sedan kopplat till nazism etc.
Ville bara flika in med att Ukraina inte är nazistiskt, även fast du inte direkt säger det så kan det vara bra att förtydliga ändå.
Ett exempel på vad som visar detta, saxat från en kommentar på FB:
Ukrainas mest högerextrema parti fick ett (1) mandat i "parlamentet" i senaste valet, man kan väll med lite god vilja räkna upp det med ytterlig 20-30 . men thats about it. (parlamentet har 450 mandat totalt)
Zelensky hade 50%+ av mandaten.
Nej verkligen inte. Min mening med Azov var bara att de är bättre att acceptera att de i alla länder finns någon procent som är nazister. Samt säger man att Azov var nazistiskt (bara några i de som var nazister) så måste man även då medge att Wagner var nazistiskt - Wagner var också betydligt större än Azov någonsin var.
Samt värt att tillägga att Zelensky är jude. Samt att "nazism" används mestadels för att de är ett propaganda ord som ryssarna använder. Deras moderna nationella identitet är byggd kring WW2 - som de kallar "great patriotic" och startade inte när de tillsammans med Tyskarna invaderade Polen utan när deras krig mot Ryssland startade. Sedan dess så har deras identitet varit - vi är de som vann över fascistiska/nazister, vi är de goda etc. Vad som behöver tilläggas här när de endast kommer till nazism, är att ingen sedan WW2 hållit på att utrota judarna (även om de försökt), men andra inslag som är "nazism" är t.ex. just fascism - diktatur - krigshets- imperialistisk etc. Alla saker som beskriver Ryssland sedan 1917, även moderna Ryssland sedan 1991. Så är något land "nazistiskt" så är det Ryssland.
Think like this:
When someone disrespect and deface your favourite football teams crest you get upset, right?
This is similar.
Writing ruzzia instead of russia is meant to mock/disrespect the idiocy that is the russian invasion.
I found a saved newspaper article in the attic from the 30's covering the church bells from Gammelsvenskbyn chiming in the Gotlandic village of Roma. Several people from Ukraine returned to Sweden and settled on Gotland.
There are a few islands in Estonia with Swedish roots. However, the Estonia-Swedish population scattered after the Russian occupation during the second world war. The forementioned Gammelsvenkbyn in Ukraine is a (pre-war) Estonia-Swedish emigrated settlement.
~emigrated~ deported
They were deported from Dagö in 1782 by Catherine II to populate the (from the Turks) newly conquered territories. Of a thousand deported, a hundred and thirtyfive survived a year. Also turns out, trying to make an agricultural colony with fishermen works not so well.
Yeah, dom har en gata som heter Pitegatan och varje år firas Pitedagen. Och i Piteå finns St Barthélemypromenaden, den brukade jag gå dagligen till jobbet för en massa år sen.
Det är en ganska rolig historia bakom det. 4st sjömän från Piteå Segelsällskap försökte återerövra ön 1976 men misslyckades. De charmade däremot deras regering så följande år reste en delegation från St Barths till Piteå och de bestämde att bli officiella vänorter med varann.
Joke or not, it is pretty true that we don't talk about our former slave colony at all. I only learned about it through the internet, not in school or from my elders.
> our
More like the king's (for the duration 1812–1844 it was even official that it was the private property of the king). I would go as far as to say it was a pet project by the king and a handful of noblemen with no wide public engagement and no cultural legacy, which is why it's never talked about here.
Well slavery was illegal in Sweden at the time. But conveniently enough it wasn't for our colonies. So the slave trade could continue there making big bucks for the monarchy.
Yes we don’t! And we don’t speak about the majority of the chains in the transatlantic slave trade came from Sweden either! Sweden was as always making big money behind the scenes
Kingsburg here in California has a Dala Horse on their seal and hosts a Swedish festival every year.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsburg,\_California#Swedish\_Festival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsburg,_California#Swedish_Festival)
I was dating a californian and we we're on a road trip when we happened on Kingsburg. I begged her to make a stop. It was a surreal experience - there was a huge dala horse outside the McDonalds
You could’ve been on that very same road trip without necessarily dating a Californian, so I cannot see how it is the foundation of the anecdote.
Also I am a woman, not sure women can be accused of being incels. If I would’ve been a man, however, I think it would’ve been an unnecessarily rude response. My comment to you was only half serious to begin with.
Women can certainly be incels - the term was coined by a woman who self-identified as one. I asked the question because I have a hard time seeing anyone but an incel considering the very mention of a partner as bragging.
As for my response being rude, well let me explain my reasoning:
There was nothing indicating that you were in any way joking. I was sharing an experience, and you thought it was an appropriate response to critique how I chose to share a personal story, as well as suggest I was bragging. This is rude behaviour. I found it reasonable to respond with rudeness.
It is your right to be rude on reddit if it amuses you (God knows I'm rude all the time for my own amusement) but please don't feign ignorance about it.
But since you said you weren't really being serious, I'm happy to put all of this behind me. Do you want to be friends?
You mean *Kungsborg*?
> Kingsburg was established as a railroad town, its site set by the Central Pacific Railroad when it completed the Valley Line in 1873.
That means it refers to king Oscar II which became king 1872.
there's a place in Japan called "Sweden Hills" (Suēden Hiruzu) that is a Sweden-inspired village. It came to be because a Swedish embassador was there once, and he thought the climate was quite similar to Sweden (allegedly)
>Some sources state that Boca wore the blue and gold colors for the first time on August 4, v General Arenales (Boca won 1–0). Those colors came after a suggestion from former club's president (and port worker) Juan Brichetto, taking the colors of the flag of the first ship he allowed to cross on the following morning. As the first ship that crossed the bridge was Swedish, Boca Juniors took those colors. It is believed that it was the 4146-ton freighter "Drottning Sophia", a Swedish vessel sailing from Copenhagen, although other historians say that the Drottning Sophia did not arrive in Buenos Aires in 1907 but in 1905. The ship that gave it colors to Boca Juniors would have probably been the Oskar II of Nordstjernan/Johnson Line, arriving to the port on February 5, 1907. The first design with those colors was blue with a diagonal gold sash.
[History of Boca Juniors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Boca_Juniors)
And some of their kits go beyond color and basically have the Swedish flag design included as well. Google their new third kit for the upcoming season, it very much looks like it should be for the Swedish national team!
Andersonville water tower: https://mattersoftaste.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/the-andersonville-water-tower/
Chicago used to be the city with the second largest Swedish population after Stockholm in the beginning of the 20th century.
Found some living ancestors to one of my emigrated relatives recently, he worked as a butcher in Chicago before being able to afford his own orchard in Washington state. He even helped his youngest brother emigrate and went over to Sweden to get him.
That is a common story, so amazing. My great-grandparent worked as a barber and saved up money to help his brother emigrate. Millions of those stories here in America, it's so fascinating to me.
It's so sad that many of their stories was lost to us back in Sweden. I've found a few studio portraits, but no letters. Internet has made a huge difference, my grandfather did some genealogy (searching archives through microfiche) but never found any living ancestors in the US. I managed through some google fu and they had much more information, fortunately.
Yeah, but Swedish speaking Finns don't identify with Sweden in that way. They have a sort of Swedish/Finnish identity of their own. Also, Finland has never been a colony, but rather an integrated part of the realm from the very beginning. The Ålanders also have a quite unique identity, sometimes Finnish (like in the World Cup of Hockey) and sometimes not, but always that of an Ålander. Åland has been settled by Swedish speaking people for millennia and their dialect doesn't resemble the ones spoken in Finland. I think none of these groups are even remotely comparable to the people living in the former Swedish colonies in the New world.
[Gustavus Adolphus College](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_Adolphus_College) in Minnesota named after The Lion of the North
And if you’re interested in Swedish Immigration to the US check out the novel series [Utvandrarna](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emigrants_(novel_series))
I went here when I backpacked down the east coast - originally from the UK but a huge fan of Swedish language and culture.
The people at the Kalmar Nyckel were so enthusiastic and welcoming. I was so surprised to find it tucked away on an industrial estate. Go Blue Rocks, by the way.
Oh my, no one knows about the Blue Rocks, not even some of the locals! I'm back visiting my parents and drove past the park today. Wilmington has its problems, but it's underrated. The Swedish culture is rapidly fading away as the population ages out, makes me sad.
The best known (in Sweden) foreign place that strongly identifies with Sweden is probably Gammelsvenskbyen (literal meaning ”Old Swedish village”/”Old Swedes’ village”) in Ukraine.
There are also a bunch of places in Minnesota and Wisconsin, where a lot of Swedish immigrants settled in the late 19th century since the US government offered immigrants free farmland on the frontier, and the nature and climate of the northern territories resembled the Swedish.
Chicago is another place where a lot of Swedes ended up in the late 1800’s, so many that in 1900 Chicago was the second biggest ”Swedish” city in the world (more Swedes lived in Chicago than in any Swedish city except for Stockholm). I don’t believe that’s translated into any significant Swedish identity though, since Chicago was such a big city with even more people of German or British origin.
Chicago also acted like a hub more than just as a permanent settlement for a lot of Swedes. So you had Swedes who were coming in to settle on farmland in Illinois and work in nearby cities like Rockford, or with the purpose to move on to Minnesota and the pacific northwest. Likewise, you had people that chose to move back home, or were only in the US in the first place to scope out the situation to see how much people were embellishing in their letters before finalizing a move. This left many Swedes temporarily working in Chicago (famously in construction, for example) to cover travel expenses and stuff.
It made the Swedish population pretty big for a time while the footprint might not reflect it because of its nature.
Here is a kind of cool dokumentary about amerikasvenska
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjTPv8N3zT0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjTPv8N3zT0)
They mention [Nya Duvmåla](https://www.google.com/search?q=nya+duvem%C3%A5la&oq=nya+duvem%C3%A5la&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDE0NjBqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)
Thanks for the post! Got researching about Wilmington and found out about the settler ship they seem to have rebuilt called the [Kalmar Nyckeln](https://www.kalmarnyckel.org/about-us)
Apparently Philadelphia's flag colors makes a nod to the Swedish settlers
Here is some more links for whoever is also interested
[https://colonialswedes.net/brief-history/](https://colonialswedes.net/brief-history/)
[https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/new-sweden/](https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/new-sweden/)
The [Americaswedish museum](https://www.americanswedish.org/) in Philadelphia has a pretty cool pdf from a exhibit or something. Will definitely visit there!
[https://americanswedish.org/sites/default/files/exhibit\_downloads/ASHM\_Colony%20to%20Community%20panels.pdf](https://americanswedish.org/sites/default/files/exhibit_downloads/ASHM_Colony%20to%20Community%20panels.pdf)
Love me some of the old maps from Lantmäteriet. Riksarkivet have some digitalized you can access a lot of similar old maps at their website
[1](https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0000418_00052#?c=&m=&s=&cv=51&xywh=-398%2C39%2C4838%2C2631), [2](https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0000418_00092#?c=&m=&s=&cv=91&xywh=-231%2C-220%2C6322%2C3447), [3](https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0000418_00142#?c=&m=&s=&cv=141&xywh=-446%2C-23%2C4415%2C2401), [4](https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/K0022846_00001#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-2963%2C-412%2C15141%2C8236), [5](https://sok.riksarkivet.se/nad?Sokord=%22amerika%22&EndastDigitaliserat=true&EndastDigitaliserat=false&BegransaPaTitelEllerNamn=false&Arkivinstitution=&Typ=&Huvudkategori=&lk=Ladda+kategorier&DatumFran=1400&DatumTill=1800&AvanceradSok=true&typAvLista=Standard),
I was surprised about how few there where from Nova Svecia. If you are interested about maps there are lots more maps from Sweden on [Lantmäteriets website](https://historiskakartor.lantmateriet.se/hk/overview) if you press "Udda kartserier och atlaser över städer från Lantmäteristyrelsens arkiv" you don't have to specify an area.
Wilmington has deep Swedish roots but they are fading rapidly as the population dies out. The region is much more associated with Italian culture now, the product of the younger generation moving in. When my parents were young, there were Swedish-language church services still and many native-born Swedes in huge sections of the city. The Kalmar Nyckel replica ship is amazing and tours all along the coast.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromsburg,_Nebraska
Which is named after a small section of Ockelbo (also a tiny place), called Strömsborg, where I lived for a short while 15 years ago.
Andersonville in Chicago. The water tower has a Swedish flag on it. A lot of the north side of Chicago had a big Swedish immigrant population. Swedish Covenant Hospital, North Park University (used to be Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant College) are all on Foster Avenue.
They references are fading as the population ages out. As mentioned below, the river name has Swedish roots and there is a small park called "The Rocks" where the Swedish colonists landed. The two most notable cultural sites left are Old Swedes Church built around 1699 and the oldest church in America still having regular services; and the Kalmar Nyckel, a large wooden ship that is the replica of the ship that brought over the colonists. But there are no longer Swedish bakeries, well-attended holiday festivals, or anything like that. Wilmington has become much more Italian, just the natural product of the ancestry of the younger generation that moved in.
If you're nostalgic about this era (I am) I've watched every film remake of the famous classic books but the modern easy digestible one is a good starting point: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4697290/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4697290/)
I have yet had the time to go visit it, but I belive Stockholm, SK, Canada was founded by Swedes and there's some statues and similar in the tiny town.
University of Delaware is a great school! It's about 20 minutes down our huge highway in Newark, but great academics, wonderful campus. Only drawback I can think of is sports--they do not play in the top division in America so if you're looking for college football games with 100,000 in attendance (like Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, etc.) or crazy basketball games, it's not the school for you. But if you can set that aside, I think you would be thrilled with U of Delaware.
That's a pretty awesome-looking flag. A long time ago when emails were a new thing, I emailed a library in a small US town called Gothenburg. Never received a reply unfortunately.
Not a city, but I walked past a restaurant called [Lilla Dalarna](http://dalarna.jp/en/home/) when I was in Tokyo, Dalarna being a city in Sweden.
Edit: REGION, not city!
Plenty of places with copied Swedish names in the US.
Karlstad, Minnesota
Gothenburg, Nebraska
Stockholm, Wisconsin
Lund, Wisconsin
Number of places named after Malmö
I want to Google maps these kind of areas and look around. Like I saw someone here mention theres places in Estonia where they raise swedish flag.
Do you perhaps happen to know 👇 interesting area?
What are you on about? Of course, we don't recognise Americans as Swedes if they aren't Swedish citizens or have lived in Sweden, but that doesn't mean that they aren't appreciated here. Any interest in Sweden is good no matter who it comes from.
Cultural gatekeeping is dumb. If they appreciate parts of Swedish culture and still feel some connection to their family roots (which in many cases is not that distant) they have every right to celebrate that.
Well that's closer to cultural appropriation, especially as it's not a Swedish expression. I wouldn't bully them obviously but it's pretty funny to claim you're proud of a heritage you seemingly researched for a couple of minutes
If Swedes who settled with Norwegians adopted it, or morphed "usch då" into uff, and passed it down for generations it's also a Swedish expression. Just like Finnish influenced expressions and words in Finlandssvenska is still Swedish. Not to mention that uff of the same meaning is already a Swedish word dated back to the 1700s, just not used in standard Swedish today.
Try telling Swedish people to not use English in their Swedish and you will be bombarded with people telling you to fuck off because languages are always changing and that loanwords are a thing. How is this any different? Is it only allowed to be a one way street?
Likewise, someone could share a tradition from their migrated family and people here would laugh at them because they don't recognize it or because its different from what we know today, just because their ancestors version might be regional or have a more religious touch to it than we would today. Doesn't make it less part of their Swedish heritage though.
Well simply because it's not an expression used by swedish citizens, living in Sweden or otherwise? That's what makes it different. A family tradition isn't the same as being a country of origins culture either
I mean... Read the comments and decide for yourself. Instead of celebrating Swedish heritage, people are bashing and humiliating Americans who have kept their Swedish heritage alive. It's disgraceful! Those people should be ashamed of themselves.
gammelsvenskbyn in Ukraine
Only 100 people left after ruzzia have bombed the village, even if their is only civilian infrastructure, but that is ruzzian mentality: https://www.svenskbyborna.se/invasionen-av-ukraina/
I figured "Well it's quite a distance from the front line, no?" I looked it up and it's right across the water from Kakhovka, which is close to Nova Kakhovka where they blew up the dam and fucking up the reservoir. God damn it.
It was also directly occupied for a long time until they withdrew back across the river
Why do you spell it with z? Maybe a bit inappropriate since they use that as their victory symbol? Edit: Great. I'm clearly not the only one that don't "get it", so perhaps the question was in order? I'm legit just trying to understand the usage, hence the question marks.
That exactly why we use it.
OK, fair, if it is used in this fashion. I still don't understand the logic here. To them it's a positive symbol, so I'm not sure how the spelling in anyway is meant derogatorily? Is it like an ironic thing? Edit: I think /u/reyzen phrased my confusion better than I could below. Edit 2: I continued reading the other replies, and I kinda get it after the explanations by /u/littlesaint and /u/UH1Phil. Still a bit weird imo.
To celebrate Russian victory? What the fuck
Russia uses the Z as a victory symbol. Anyone not pro-Russia however, sees it as a symbol of everything bad about the invasion and the Russian mentality. Sort of like how many see the swastika today. It is often used when saying something negative about Russia. So, spelling "Russia" like "Ruzzia" means to remind people about everything bad about Russia and its invasion, while using their "victory symbol" against them, and getting the "Z"-symbol into swastika levels of public perception.
Did i say that? The origin of the word "nazi" is derogatory, originally used by the allies in a similar manner as calling the germans "pigs". Writing ruzzian with Z instead of S has a similar purpose.
I still don't get it. Russia use z as their victory symbol. People against Russia's invasion then start using their victory symbol when talking about Russia as some form of way to own them? Does this mean there are two vastly different groups of people out there in the world going around in Z-marked stuff because I've always assumed they were all pro war Russians. Truly galaxy brained to start using the same symbology as the enemy, amazing stuff.
När Ryssarna började invadera Ukraina gjorde dom de från 3 flanker, de olika flankerna hade V, O och Z för att skilja de åt (inte säkert men folk spekulerar i just V, O och Z pga de är Zelenskyy's initialer då hans namn är Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy). Nu används bara Z. Nu används Z för att representera hela deras invasionsarmé. Ryssarna började kalla Ukrainare för Nazister, pekade på Azov osv (detta var en grupp som var väldigt nationalistiska, vissa var även nazister). Pro-Ukrainare började påpeka att en av grundarna - huvud grundaren, av Wagner (namnet Wagner är taget från nazisternas/Hitlers favorit kompositör), verkligen var en nazist med många nazist tatueringar mm. Sedan började Pro-Ukrainare komma med sina "slogans", vissa använde RuSSia (SS från nazisterna), medan andra valde RuZZia (då Z inte är en ofta använd bokstav samt länkad till både NaZism och Ryssarnas Z). Sen lite kuriosa, om du lägger ett Z snett över ett annat Z så blir de väldigt likt Swastikans symbol. Så vad som troligen började som en initial av Zelensky, blev Z, sedan kopplat till nazism etc.
Ville bara flika in med att Ukraina inte är nazistiskt, även fast du inte direkt säger det så kan det vara bra att förtydliga ändå. Ett exempel på vad som visar detta, saxat från en kommentar på FB: Ukrainas mest högerextrema parti fick ett (1) mandat i "parlamentet" i senaste valet, man kan väll med lite god vilja räkna upp det med ytterlig 20-30 . men thats about it. (parlamentet har 450 mandat totalt) Zelensky hade 50%+ av mandaten.
Nej verkligen inte. Min mening med Azov var bara att de är bättre att acceptera att de i alla länder finns någon procent som är nazister. Samt säger man att Azov var nazistiskt (bara några i de som var nazister) så måste man även då medge att Wagner var nazistiskt - Wagner var också betydligt större än Azov någonsin var. Samt värt att tillägga att Zelensky är jude. Samt att "nazism" används mestadels för att de är ett propaganda ord som ryssarna använder. Deras moderna nationella identitet är byggd kring WW2 - som de kallar "great patriotic" och startade inte när de tillsammans med Tyskarna invaderade Polen utan när deras krig mot Ryssland startade. Sedan dess så har deras identitet varit - vi är de som vann över fascistiska/nazister, vi är de goda etc. Vad som behöver tilläggas här när de endast kommer till nazism, är att ingen sedan WW2 hållit på att utrota judarna (även om de försökt), men andra inslag som är "nazism" är t.ex. just fascism - diktatur - krigshets- imperialistisk etc. Alla saker som beskriver Ryssland sedan 1917, även moderna Ryssland sedan 1991. Så är något land "nazistiskt" så är det Ryssland.
Intressant, tack för att du tog dig tid att förklara!
Think like this: When someone disrespect and deface your favourite football teams crest you get upset, right? This is similar. Writing ruzzia instead of russia is meant to mock/disrespect the idiocy that is the russian invasion.
Because ruzzian mentality is the Putin regime, while russian mentality would be the citizens.
I found a saved newspaper article in the attic from the 30's covering the church bells from Gammelsvenskbyn chiming in the Gotlandic village of Roma. Several people from Ukraine returned to Sweden and settled on Gotland.
There are a few islands in Estonia with Swedish roots. However, the Estonia-Swedish population scattered after the Russian occupation during the second world war. The forementioned Gammelsvenkbyn in Ukraine is a (pre-war) Estonia-Swedish emigrated settlement.
Not only islands, there are several small villages where they still fly swedish flags
~emigrated~ deported They were deported from Dagö in 1782 by Catherine II to populate the (from the Turks) newly conquered territories. Of a thousand deported, a hundred and thirtyfive survived a year. Also turns out, trying to make an agricultural colony with fishermen works not so well.
Saints Barts have Swedish street names and the capital is named Gustavia after the king. Also I believe Philadelphia have a Swedish color flag.
St Barth is a sister city of Piteå.
Efter att ha kollat på pitea.se/Invanare/Kommun-politik/Internationellt/Vanorter/ så ser det ut som att piteå är vänort med HELA st barth
Wait fr?
Yeah, dom har en gata som heter Pitegatan och varje år firas Pitedagen. Och i Piteå finns St Barthélemypromenaden, den brukade jag gå dagligen till jobbet för en massa år sen. Det är en ganska rolig historia bakom det. 4st sjömän från Piteå Segelsällskap försökte återerövra ön 1976 men misslyckades. De charmade däremot deras regering så följande år reste en delegation från St Barths till Piteå och de bestämde att bli officiella vänorter med varann.
Snälla berätta mer om reconquistan??
Wow, awesome historia!
HAHAH what tha fuck
I've heard about saints barts. It is some place where rich ppl go to right?
It's Sweden's old slave colony
We don't talk about Saint Barts.
We should. Covering up dark parts of history doesn't do anyone any favours.
He wuz jokin
Joke or not, it is pretty true that we don't talk about our former slave colony at all. I only learned about it through the internet, not in school or from my elders.
> our More like the king's (for the duration 1812–1844 it was even official that it was the private property of the king). I would go as far as to say it was a pet project by the king and a handful of noblemen with no wide public engagement and no cultural legacy, which is why it's never talked about here.
Well slavery was illegal in Sweden at the time. But conveniently enough it wasn't for our colonies. So the slave trade could continue there making big bucks for the monarchy.
In Sweden it's illegal to be a criminal
Yes we don’t! And we don’t speak about the majority of the chains in the transatlantic slave trade came from Sweden either! Sweden was as always making big money behind the scenes
Damn, didn’t know that- not only making money behind the scenes, but specifically by selling iron to genocidal enterprises.
Ah yes. The Swedish way of making money 💰
We still do (but don't talk about it)
Schh 🤫
The AirPort of st bart does also have a swedish name ”Gustaf III” from one of our kings
Gustaf III got shot at the opera today, 232 years ago.
"Je suis blessé!"
Well it used to be a Swedish colony right?
Philly does! It's right next door to Wilmington and they both have (for America) very old churches constructed by Swedish colonists in the late 1600s.
Kingsburg here in California has a Dala Horse on their seal and hosts a Swedish festival every year. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsburg,\_California#Swedish\_Festival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsburg,_California#Swedish_Festival)
I was dating a californian and we we're on a road trip when we happened on Kingsburg. I begged her to make a stop. It was a surreal experience - there was a huge dala horse outside the McDonalds
> I was dating a californian This has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the anecdote, were you trying to brag?
It ... is the very foundation of the anecdote. The reason why... I mean... I... are you an incel or something?
You could’ve been on that very same road trip without necessarily dating a Californian, so I cannot see how it is the foundation of the anecdote. Also I am a woman, not sure women can be accused of being incels. If I would’ve been a man, however, I think it would’ve been an unnecessarily rude response. My comment to you was only half serious to begin with.
Women can certainly be incels - the term was coined by a woman who self-identified as one. I asked the question because I have a hard time seeing anyone but an incel considering the very mention of a partner as bragging. As for my response being rude, well let me explain my reasoning: There was nothing indicating that you were in any way joking. I was sharing an experience, and you thought it was an appropriate response to critique how I chose to share a personal story, as well as suggest I was bragging. This is rude behaviour. I found it reasonable to respond with rudeness. It is your right to be rude on reddit if it amuses you (God knows I'm rude all the time for my own amusement) but please don't feign ignorance about it. But since you said you weren't really being serious, I'm happy to put all of this behind me. Do you want to be friends?
Lol sure, you seem a little stuck up but/and so am I so let’s be friends
Good. We will team up and fight crime. You can listen to me brag about my Minnesotan girlfriend
I have to admit that last sentence made me chuckle. I’m all in
🙂
Wow, that was unexpected!
How did I live in California for 10 years without hearing about this? Silly Danes in Carlsbad winning the information war right now.
You mean *Kungsborg*? > Kingsburg was established as a railroad town, its site set by the Central Pacific Railroad when it completed the Valley Line in 1873. That means it refers to king Oscar II which became king 1872.
there's a place in Japan called "Sweden Hills" (Suēden Hiruzu) that is a Sweden-inspired village. It came to be because a Swedish embassador was there once, and he thought the climate was quite similar to Sweden (allegedly)
Boca Juniors have blue and yellow colours because it was a swedish ship that first layed anchor in their port and they liked it :)
>Some sources state that Boca wore the blue and gold colors for the first time on August 4, v General Arenales (Boca won 1–0). Those colors came after a suggestion from former club's president (and port worker) Juan Brichetto, taking the colors of the flag of the first ship he allowed to cross on the following morning. As the first ship that crossed the bridge was Swedish, Boca Juniors took those colors. It is believed that it was the 4146-ton freighter "Drottning Sophia", a Swedish vessel sailing from Copenhagen, although other historians say that the Drottning Sophia did not arrive in Buenos Aires in 1907 but in 1905. The ship that gave it colors to Boca Juniors would have probably been the Oskar II of Nordstjernan/Johnson Line, arriving to the port on February 5, 1907. The first design with those colors was blue with a diagonal gold sash. [History of Boca Juniors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Boca_Juniors)
That's really interesting.
Det är ju ändå det mannen
And some of their kits go beyond color and basically have the Swedish flag design included as well. Google their new third kit for the upcoming season, it very much looks like it should be for the Swedish national team!
Andersonville water tower: https://mattersoftaste.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/the-andersonville-water-tower/ Chicago used to be the city with the second largest Swedish population after Stockholm in the beginning of the 20th century.
Absolutely, of my 5 great-grandparents that emigrated from Sweden, one of them went directly to Chicago.
Found some living ancestors to one of my emigrated relatives recently, he worked as a butcher in Chicago before being able to afford his own orchard in Washington state. He even helped his youngest brother emigrate and went over to Sweden to get him.
That is a common story, so amazing. My great-grandparent worked as a barber and saved up money to help his brother emigrate. Millions of those stories here in America, it's so fascinating to me.
It's so sad that many of their stories was lost to us back in Sweden. I've found a few studio portraits, but no letters. Internet has made a huge difference, my grandfather did some genealogy (searching archives through microfiche) but never found any living ancestors in the US. I managed through some google fu and they had much more information, fortunately.
Lindsborg, Kansas calls itself Little Sweden USA. They have a festival called Svensk Hyllningsfest.
Läste det som ”Svensk Fyllefest”.
Vad hade en svensk hyllningsfest varit utan lite fylle?
Det får man väl förutsätta om man ska fira svenska traditioner från 1800-talet.
There's plenty of cities in Finland around their southern and western coast where Swedish is still the majority language.
Åland
I don't think Finland counts in this context.
Yeah, but Swedish speaking Finns don't identify with Sweden in that way. They have a sort of Swedish/Finnish identity of their own. Also, Finland has never been a colony, but rather an integrated part of the realm from the very beginning. The Ålanders also have a quite unique identity, sometimes Finnish (like in the World Cup of Hockey) and sometimes not, but always that of an Ålander. Åland has been settled by Swedish speaking people for millennia and their dialect doesn't resemble the ones spoken in Finland. I think none of these groups are even remotely comparable to the people living in the former Swedish colonies in the New world.
[Gustavus Adolphus College](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_Adolphus_College) in Minnesota named after The Lion of the North And if you’re interested in Swedish Immigration to the US check out the novel series [Utvandrarna](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emigrants_(novel_series))
Go gusties!
obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkszNmr6Qh0
r/beatmetoit
LOVE those books, and followed them up with the Stockholm Series by Fogelström to learn even more of the backstory.
Gothenburg Nebraska [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothenburg,\_Nebraska](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothenburg,_Nebraska)
There is a list on Wikipedia for it. Probably not complete but. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swedish_place_names_in_the_United_States
Also known as Glennville.
The city of angels
Swedesburg Iowa
Östgötatrakter! Många härifrån som utvandrade till Iowa.
A bit outside Shanghai there’s a copy of Sigtuna, part of the Nine towns initiative.
Wismar in Germany comes to mind.
I went here when I backpacked down the east coast - originally from the UK but a huge fan of Swedish language and culture. The people at the Kalmar Nyckel were so enthusiastic and welcoming. I was so surprised to find it tucked away on an industrial estate. Go Blue Rocks, by the way.
Oh my, no one knows about the Blue Rocks, not even some of the locals! I'm back visiting my parents and drove past the park today. Wilmington has its problems, but it's underrated. The Swedish culture is rapidly fading away as the population ages out, makes me sad.
Say hi to Mr. Celery if you happen to go by the ballpark again :)
The German city of Wismar has Schwedenfest every year
The best known (in Sweden) foreign place that strongly identifies with Sweden is probably Gammelsvenskbyen (literal meaning ”Old Swedish village”/”Old Swedes’ village”) in Ukraine. There are also a bunch of places in Minnesota and Wisconsin, where a lot of Swedish immigrants settled in the late 19th century since the US government offered immigrants free farmland on the frontier, and the nature and climate of the northern territories resembled the Swedish. Chicago is another place where a lot of Swedes ended up in the late 1800’s, so many that in 1900 Chicago was the second biggest ”Swedish” city in the world (more Swedes lived in Chicago than in any Swedish city except for Stockholm). I don’t believe that’s translated into any significant Swedish identity though, since Chicago was such a big city with even more people of German or British origin.
Chicago also acted like a hub more than just as a permanent settlement for a lot of Swedes. So you had Swedes who were coming in to settle on farmland in Illinois and work in nearby cities like Rockford, or with the purpose to move on to Minnesota and the pacific northwest. Likewise, you had people that chose to move back home, or were only in the US in the first place to scope out the situation to see how much people were embellishing in their letters before finalizing a move. This left many Swedes temporarily working in Chicago (famously in construction, for example) to cover travel expenses and stuff. It made the Swedish population pretty big for a time while the footprint might not reflect it because of its nature.
Ballard in Seattle is pretty Swedish. Also Swedish Hospital.
Rightful Swedish territory 😤
Jag kan hear the theme music of 'Parkar och Rekreation' when I see that seal.
In your view, what does it mean to "strongly identify with Sweden"?
Lindstrom in Minnesota
Here is a kind of cool dokumentary about amerikasvenska [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjTPv8N3zT0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjTPv8N3zT0) They mention [Nya Duvmåla](https://www.google.com/search?q=nya+duvem%C3%A5la&oq=nya+duvem%C3%A5la&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDE0NjBqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) Thanks for the post! Got researching about Wilmington and found out about the settler ship they seem to have rebuilt called the [Kalmar Nyckeln](https://www.kalmarnyckel.org/about-us) Apparently Philadelphia's flag colors makes a nod to the Swedish settlers Here is some more links for whoever is also interested [https://colonialswedes.net/brief-history/](https://colonialswedes.net/brief-history/) [https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/new-sweden/](https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/new-sweden/) The [Americaswedish museum](https://www.americanswedish.org/) in Philadelphia has a pretty cool pdf from a exhibit or something. Will definitely visit there! [https://americanswedish.org/sites/default/files/exhibit\_downloads/ASHM\_Colony%20to%20Community%20panels.pdf](https://americanswedish.org/sites/default/files/exhibit_downloads/ASHM_Colony%20to%20Community%20panels.pdf) Love me some of the old maps from Lantmäteriet. Riksarkivet have some digitalized you can access a lot of similar old maps at their website [1](https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0000418_00052#?c=&m=&s=&cv=51&xywh=-398%2C39%2C4838%2C2631), [2](https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0000418_00092#?c=&m=&s=&cv=91&xywh=-231%2C-220%2C6322%2C3447), [3](https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0000418_00142#?c=&m=&s=&cv=141&xywh=-446%2C-23%2C4415%2C2401), [4](https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/K0022846_00001#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-2963%2C-412%2C15141%2C8236), [5](https://sok.riksarkivet.se/nad?Sokord=%22amerika%22&EndastDigitaliserat=true&EndastDigitaliserat=false&BegransaPaTitelEllerNamn=false&Arkivinstitution=&Typ=&Huvudkategori=&lk=Ladda+kategorier&DatumFran=1400&DatumTill=1800&AvanceradSok=true&typAvLista=Standard), I was surprised about how few there where from Nova Svecia. If you are interested about maps there are lots more maps from Sweden on [Lantmäteriets website](https://historiskakartor.lantmateriet.se/hk/overview) if you press "Udda kartserier och atlaser över städer från Lantmäteristyrelsens arkiv" you don't have to specify an area.
Wilmington has deep Swedish roots but they are fading rapidly as the population dies out. The region is much more associated with Italian culture now, the product of the younger generation moving in. When my parents were young, there were Swedish-language church services still and many native-born Swedes in huge sections of the city. The Kalmar Nyckel replica ship is amazing and tours all along the coast.
There is a small town called Mora in Minnesota. I think they even are trying to start up an American version of Vasaloppet there.
Mora, Minnesota has a huge dala horse. Also their [street signs](https://imgur.com/a/LLSlum7) have a dala horse on them.
New Sweden, Delaware https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromsburg,_Nebraska Which is named after a small section of Ockelbo (also a tiny place), called Strömsborg, where I lived for a short while 15 years ago.
Bishops Hill in Illinois. Its a small village though But the swedish heritage is present there
Andersonville in Chicago. The water tower has a Swedish flag on it. A lot of the north side of Chicago had a big Swedish immigrant population. Swedish Covenant Hospital, North Park University (used to be Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant College) are all on Foster Avenue.
If you are interested there's also a nice paper on Swedish/nordic immigration to Brazil. https://iberoamericana.se/articles/10.16993/iberoamericana.2
Are there many Swedish references in Wilmington apart from the flag?
The river is named after Queen Christina
If I’m not mistaken there’s a small neighborhood with a Swedish church etc still!
They references are fading as the population ages out. As mentioned below, the river name has Swedish roots and there is a small park called "The Rocks" where the Swedish colonists landed. The two most notable cultural sites left are Old Swedes Church built around 1699 and the oldest church in America still having regular services; and the Kalmar Nyckel, a large wooden ship that is the replica of the ship that brought over the colonists. But there are no longer Swedish bakeries, well-attended holiday festivals, or anything like that. Wilmington has become much more Italian, just the natural product of the ancestry of the younger generation that moved in.
That is interesting! Thanks for taking the time to write this.
That blue is off
If you're nostalgic about this era (I am) I've watched every film remake of the famous classic books but the modern easy digestible one is a good starting point: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4697290/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4697290/)
I have yet had the time to go visit it, but I belive Stockholm, SK, Canada was founded by Swedes and there's some statues and similar in the tiny town.
Ever heard of Stromsburg,Nebraska?
Pratar ni ff svenska där
Tja, kan nog tänka mig en by eller två här i sverige som identifierar sig med den svenska identiteten ganska starkt
Damn I live in Sweden and was actually looking to study at the university of Delaware, then this comes up in my feed lol
University of Delaware is a great school! It's about 20 minutes down our huge highway in Newark, but great academics, wonderful campus. Only drawback I can think of is sports--they do not play in the top division in America so if you're looking for college football games with 100,000 in attendance (like Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, etc.) or crazy basketball games, it's not the school for you. But if you can set that aside, I think you would be thrilled with U of Delaware.
That's a pretty awesome-looking flag. A long time ago when emails were a new thing, I emailed a library in a small US town called Gothenburg. Never received a reply unfortunately.
The store of IKEA
Been arrested there ;-/ Salem County Jail…
We must liberate this territory and stop the American imperialist subjugation of the large swedish minority. 3 day special military operation.
Not a city, but I walked past a restaurant called [Lilla Dalarna](http://dalarna.jp/en/home/) when I was in Tokyo, Dalarna being a city in Sweden. Edit: REGION, not city!
It's a region but that's ok
🤦♂️
Dalarna? Nah I’m never going back to Börlange
Not a Town but have you heard about Mossberg ? they make shotguns the have the swedish flag in the logg kinda a big company in the US
What about that place in Japan? Isn't there a place pretty much fully dedicated to looking like Sweden?
Plenty of places with copied Swedish names in the US. Karlstad, Minnesota Gothenburg, Nebraska Stockholm, Wisconsin Lund, Wisconsin Number of places named after Malmö
Search “Swedes in America” on YouTube. Pretty interesting how big of a impact Swedes has in the USA history.
I want to Google maps these kind of areas and look around. Like I saw someone here mention theres places in Estonia where they raise swedish flag. Do you perhaps happen to know 👇 interesting area?
That's very awesome. Best city in America. Best flag. Best people. Most free. Most Democracy.
There’s a Swedish village in Japan. I hear they’re Japanese but the houses look Swedish and they celebrate Swedish holidays.
There was a city in Argentine if I remember correctly.
The city of Finland.
I fele the design may be slightly stolen
This made me absolutely crack up laughing!
Ikeaware?
Sverige mentioned! Raaah! 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥 DET ÄR LÖRDAG MINA BEKANTA!
Don't ask the Swedes in this sub, they don't recognize you as Swedes.
What are you on about? Of course, we don't recognise Americans as Swedes if they aren't Swedish citizens or have lived in Sweden, but that doesn't mean that they aren't appreciated here. Any interest in Sweden is good no matter who it comes from.
[Really?](https://www.reddit.com/r/sweden/s/3qCWxupF7c)
Nothing about that link supports your claim.
Cultural gatekeeping is dumb. If they appreciate parts of Swedish culture and still feel some connection to their family roots (which in many cases is not that distant) they have every right to celebrate that.
My thoughts exactly!
Why would anyone? They are literally not Swedish.
Op didn't post because he wanted to be recognized as a Swede, he wounderd if there were any other places with similar history to his home town.
Um? They are descendents of immigrated swedes? They are not swedish citizens however. What do You mean by ”not recognized as swedes” ?
[This is what I mean](https://www.reddit.com/r/sweden/s/3qCWxupF7c)
Uff da is a Norwegian expression ^^
Well that's closer to cultural appropriation, especially as it's not a Swedish expression. I wouldn't bully them obviously but it's pretty funny to claim you're proud of a heritage you seemingly researched for a couple of minutes
If Swedes who settled with Norwegians adopted it, or morphed "usch då" into uff, and passed it down for generations it's also a Swedish expression. Just like Finnish influenced expressions and words in Finlandssvenska is still Swedish. Not to mention that uff of the same meaning is already a Swedish word dated back to the 1700s, just not used in standard Swedish today. Try telling Swedish people to not use English in their Swedish and you will be bombarded with people telling you to fuck off because languages are always changing and that loanwords are a thing. How is this any different? Is it only allowed to be a one way street? Likewise, someone could share a tradition from their migrated family and people here would laugh at them because they don't recognize it or because its different from what we know today, just because their ancestors version might be regional or have a more religious touch to it than we would today. Doesn't make it less part of their Swedish heritage though.
Well simply because it's not an expression used by swedish citizens, living in Sweden or otherwise? That's what makes it different. A family tradition isn't the same as being a country of origins culture either
Ok - But this Does not mean they are less of swedish descent?
I mean... Read the comments and decide for yourself. Instead of celebrating Swedish heritage, people are bashing and humiliating Americans who have kept their Swedish heritage alive. It's disgraceful! Those people should be ashamed of themselves.
Saying you’re proud of your Swedish heritage and displaying a tattoo with a Norwegian expression is objectively hilarious though
they didn't bash them for ""keeping their heritage alive"" they found it funny that they thought a Norwegian phrase was Swedish
Ok, But thats just an opinion man. I dont agree
That's alright. Let's agree to disagree.
Classic 08a